


Pump's Solo Spooky Day

by CuteCat



Series: Fun-Filled Spooky Month [1]
Category: Friday Night Funkin' (Video Game), Spooky Month (Short Films - Sr Pelo)
Genre: Gen, Pump hangs out with a new friend, Skid's mom is named Lila but nobody calls her by name in the fic, The Hatzgang also appears, The spooky kids need more cute fics, Very small amounts of Skid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29535618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuteCat/pseuds/CuteCat
Summary: It's Spooky Month! But when Skid's not available, Pump is left to try and have fun without him.
Series: Fun-Filled Spooky Month [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2208207
Comments: 26
Kudos: 148





	Pump's Solo Spooky Day

It was Spooky Month!

It had been Spooky Month for at least an hour, and Skid had yet to call for Pump to hang out!

As such, it was up to  _ Pump _ to call  _ Skid _ to hang out. The pumpkin-costumed child appeared at Skid's house with a 'pop' and rang the doorbell, waiting for his best friend to open. When a second passed without the door opening, he rang it three more times just to be sure.

Finally the door swung open and Pump was met with not Skid, but Skid's mom, who was much taller and required him to crane his neck to look at her properly. Before he even had time to ask about his friend though, Skid poked his head out from behind her and lit up with delight. "Ey!"

"Eyy!" Pump replied enthusiastically, the two sharing a short Spooky Dance.

“Hey mum, can Pump and I go play?” asked Skid, looking up at his mom, who was visibly hesitating.

“Mm, I don’t know,” she answered, “the car’s coming any moment.”

“He can come with us!” Skid suggested, unfazed. Pump nodded quickly, not having any idea where they were going but wanting to hang with Skid.

“Well, that’s…” Skid’s mom hesitated again, scratching her cheek. “I don’t think so. It’s a family event, not a family-and-friends event.”

Pump’s face fell, as did Skid’s. A family event? What family event? Seeing that the children were both unhappy, Skid’s mom quickly adopted a reassuring tone and crouched down. “Don’t worry! It won’t take all Spooky Month, we’ll be back before you know it!”

“Okay,” Pump and Skid agreed with somewhat dulled enthusiasm, just in time for the beeps of a car to sound through the still-open door.

“Oh!” said Skid’s mom, standing up straight. “That’s the car now! Alright, kids, time to say good-bye.”

As his mom brought the luggage (they had luggage? How long would this family event be?) out to the car, Skid quickly turned to Pump. “I’mma tell you everything when I’m back! And then we can play all Spooky Month! Promise!”

“Okay!” Pump replied, the thought of a Spooky Recap already cheering him up. “And then we can get ice cream!”

“Yeah!”

“Skid!” Skid’s mom called from the car, signaling that she was ready to go.

“Coming, mum!” the skeleton-costumed child called back. Pump walked with him out to the car, then back to the house to close the door, then back to the car, staying on the curb and waving after his friend as the car drove away with Skid and family on board.

He kept waving until the vehicle was fully out of sight, then a moment longer, before letting his arm drop. What now? He was all revved up for Spooky Month, but he didn’t have a best friend to celebrate it with. He had to play alone until Skid came back from his Family Event.

Putting a gloved hand to his chin, Pump thought hard. He couldn’t go to the ice cream man, because he promised Skid they’d go together. He couldn’t go to the candy store either, because if he got a candy bag now Kevin (the candy store clerk) may not give him one later, and besides eating candy alone wasn’t as fun as doing it with Skid. Neither was watching movies or playing videogames.

He was about to glance to Skid to see if his friend had any ideas, only to remember that he was still alone. Making a small sound of dismay, Pump went back to thinking. Maybe he could practice his rap battle skills? No, wait, he only knew half the notes so he needed Skid to do the rest...

“I know,” he finally announced to nobody in particular. “Let’s go to the park!”

* * *

The park was nice. It had a little pond in it with ducks, and a lot of grass and streetlights and stuff, and it could even be pretty spooky at night. Pump took the long way there to waste a little bit more time, but soon enough he was walking among the park trees. There weren’t a lot of people out, and the streetlights were placed pretty far apart so only bits and pieces of the park were lit, so this was a perfectly spooky spot!

“It’s Spooky Month!” Pump called out at the pond, watching as the ducks gasped and started doing the spooky dance with their wings. The declaration didn’t carry as far as when Skid was with him, but as long as it was heard at all Pump was happy. He picked up the pace as he kept moving, looking for other people to declare Spooky Month to, but since the park was still rather desolate he soon moved on to other places.

First he told the dentist’s office, then the weird fruit sales lady that hung out near the mall. Pump carefully avoided places that were  _ too _ spooky (though the dentist was debatably such a place, it was more scary than spooky), saving them for when Skid was there, and he also avoided places with too many people ‘cuz they probably wouldn’t hear him.

“Heyy,  _ loser _ .”

Pump stopped mid-stride, looking to the voice. Three teens - Roy and his friends who liked to bully Pump and Skid for reasons beyond his understanding - were standing nearby, with Roy in the lead as always.

“Where’s your weirdo buddy?” asked Roy, somewhat leaning down to survey the child better.

“Skid’s at a family event,” Pump answered truthfully, more puzzled than intimidated.

“Oh, and you’re not family enough?” Roy asked again, lips curled into a mean smile. “I thought you two were joined at the hip.”

That would have been cool. Pump made a mental note to suggest it as an activity later, but thought better of it after realizing how inconvenient that would be. He settled for just replying “We’re not.”

A few moments passed, then Roy’s smile fell and he stood back up straight. “... It’s not as fun with just one of you.” Pump blinked, confused, but didn’t know what to say as Roy started walking off with the other two in tow. “We’ll come back when you two are together again, and when that happens, you better be prepared!”

“Okay! Bye Roy, bye Ross and Robert!” Pump called as the bullies left, waving after them (Robert waved back, unnoticed by Roy). Once they were gone he frowned, lowering his hand.

Roy wasn’t really wrong. Even if Pump  _ could _ do things by himself, it wasn’t as fun as doing them with someone else. He wanted someone to share his giddiness with, even if it wasn’t Skid!

Hmmm. Pump tapped at his chin thoughtfully, arms crossed. He couldn’t hang with Skid, but maybe he could hang with someone else until Skid came back? The big question was who.

He began to walk as he pondered the question. He didn’t know  _ anyone _ as well as he knew Skid, so picking out a substitute was hard. Even the thought of a ‘substitute’ felt weird, so he amended the description to be “hanging out with a non-best friend”. After all he had lots of non-best friends, like Moloch or The Eyes or the blue-haired rapper Boyfriend.

Oh, they hadn’t found Moloch ever since that incident with the exterminator guy though… And he wasn’t  _ quite _ sure he wanted to hang out alone with The Eyes. And Boyfriend would definitely want to do a rap battle, which wasn’t possible when Skid was gone.

Pump pouted. This was hard! He almost wished  _ his _ family had gone on a family trip too, so he didn’t have to think about all this stuff. Maybe they could have gone on their own family trip to the same place as Skid’s family trip. He made a mental note to suggest that next time this kind of thing happened.

A streetlight ahead flickered, drawing Pump’s attention. Without really thinking about it he’d ended up back at the park, so when a streetlight turned off everything got real dark for a bit. The streetlight turned off, then on, then off again for a good two seconds, then back on. The final time it turned on someone had appeared under it, a weird-looking person in a black bodysuit with a gangly, squishy look and a head that looked like a lemon, with round staring eyes and teeth that were outside his smile.

Pump lit up. The Lemon Guy! He’d almost forgotten, Lemon Guy was a good friend. He’d told Pump and Skid how to get something really neat back at the haunted spooky house a while back, and even though the two had failed to get the Really Neat Thing they had instead earned Boyfriend’s friendship, which was neat in its own right.

“Ah, children,” Lemon Guy spoke smoothly. “Just who I hoped to see…” He paused, scanning the air around Pump.

“Skid’s on a family trip,” Pump supplied casually. “Wanna hang out?”

“... Hang… out?” asked Lemon Guy, as though the concept was foreign to him.

“Yeah! ‘Cuz it’s  _ Spooky Month!” _

Lemon Guy stared blankly. Did he not know what Spooky Month was?

“See, on Spooky Month you kinda crouch down, like this, and then you dance like this,” Pump explained, showcasing his Spooky Dance as he did. Lemon Guy awkwardly followed suit, soon getting the hang of it - he looked funny when dancing, his body squishing and extending with every move like an accordion. “Yeah like that!”

They danced for a short while, with Lemon Guy stopping a little after Pump. Usually, whoever was asked to hang out got to pick what to do first, but Lemon Guy didn’t seem about to say anything so this was probably another thing he didn’t know about. Pump would have to spur him on. “What do you wanna do first?”

“Oh yes!” Lemon Guy straightened as though he’d just remembered why he had appeared, and swiftly procured a microphone. “I had a task in mind, a little song competition. If you would like to help.”

Oh, so a rap battle like last time! Pump nodded eagerly as he accepted the microphone. “Sure! Who are we fighting?”

“Nothing much… A sweet young couple in the moon-lit night.” Lemon Guy seemed to be almost drooling at the thought. Which made sense, since having no lips would make it hard not to drool, Pump reasoned. He vaguely wondered if the young couple was going to be Boyfriend and Boyfriend’s girlfriend, Girlfriend, but there were probably a lot of other couples around too.

Oh, though, Pump couldn’t do rap battles on his own. He considered this dilemma for a solid second before coming to a perfect conclusion. “Okay, hop onto my back!”

“... What?” asked Lemon Guy, blinking.

“Well I usually sing with Skid,” Pump explained, “but Skid’s not here, so you’ll have to sing instead. And he usually sits on my back, so you’d sit on my back too!” 

There was a pause as Lemon Guy took in his words, then compared their very different sizes. Pump waited and smiled encouragingly. Finally the lemon-man gave in and gingerly stepped onto Pump, perching atop him much like a bird.

He was heavy! Much heavier than Skid. Pump put on a brave face and steeled himself; it was his idea so he clearly couldn’t suggest Lemon Guy get back off. Crouching helped, too.

Once both parties were steady, it was time to actually practice the music. “R, ready?” Pump asked up at Lemon Guy. “We trade notes, okay? So I do half.”

Three, two, one, go!

Humming to the song he’d usually play as a warm-up, Pump started to do a Spooky Dance - he felt it was easier to feel the rhythm if he was moving along to it. Skid was the same way. Lemon Guy, as it turned out, was not. The adult’s massive weight wobbled as Pump began to move, then over-corrected when he tried to steady himself, and as Pump in turn tilted to compensate for the over-correction everything went real bad really fast. Pump managed to stay on his feet through a generous amount of flailing, but Lemon Guy fell off entirely and hit the grass face-first.

“Aw,” Pump frowned as he helped his friend back up. “That didn’t go so well.”

Lemon Guy didn’t reply, studying the child for a good few seconds. Just as Pump was going to suggest they try again, though, the lemon-man spoke. “You would be better on top.”

“Uh? You think so?” Pump had never been on top before, aside from the first time he sang with Skid (which hadn’t ended much better than this time), but Lemon Guy slipped under his feet with ease and then rose with the child unceremoniously sat on his shoulders. Pump had to hold onto the sides of the lemon-like head to steady himself, looking around. This was high up! Lemon Guy was  _ tall!  _ Not as tall as The Eyes of course, but a more down-to-earth kind of tall. Taller than his dad.

“Oh, yeah this is much better,” he admitted. Lemon Guy didn’t seem to mind his weight at all. “Okay, ready?”

Lemon Guy nodded, so Pump did a quiet count-down and started humming on the warm-up song again. They usually free-styled that one, so there wasn’t any need to go over it beforehand. He sang a few quick notes then held the mic down to Lemon Guy, who ignored it in favor of just singing anyway, trying to keep up with the beat Pump had set. They went back and forth a few times before a very clear problem emerged.

The rhythm was too fast. Even though he was trying his best, Lemon Guy’s notes dragged way behind Pump’s, kinda reminding him of Boyfriend’s first attempt at it. With a disappointed sound, Pump stopped singing and rubbed his chin. “Why don’t we try one of your songs?”

He’d heard one of Lemon Guy’s songs before, right after he fought Boyfriend. The lyrics were really dark and spooky, the kind of thing he imagined to be on those CDs with “parental advisory” on the cover, but as long as he didn’t have to sing any of the really bad lyrics he figured it’d be fine. 

With no speakers to aid them in practice, it was Lemon Guy’s time to hum and then start singing. “Yes it’s time, you better plug in...”

The lyrics were the same as the song Pump had heard, thankfully. Okay, he knew how this one continued. “All your nightlights…”

“What’s in there, past your…?”

“Your uh, darkened doorway…” Whoops, that one was just meant to be ‘door’, right? Pump winced at his own mistake, but if Lemon Guy had noticed he didn’t say anything. He just kept humming and singing, and Pump tried to keep up and remember the right lyrics.

Unfortunately, sentences that were terrifying coming from a smoothly-singing adult man lost just about all impact when sung by an 8-year-old whose only lyrical experiences came from nursery rhymes. Plus when the lyrics about cutting up kids came up Pump was thrown off by the sudden speed change and missed his cue, causing the song to come to an early halt.

“Um, I don’t think singing is going so well,” Pump concluded, looking down at his friend. Lemon Guy seemed disappointed and that made Pump feel bad, but there wasn’t much he could do about it! He climbed down and gave back the microphone, trying to think of a good way to cheer his friend up. “... I know, let’s go play on the swings!”

* * *

The playground wasn’t a particularly spooky place, so Pump and Skid didn’t visit it very often, but the swings were always fun to play on during non-spooky months and right now ‘fun’ was the most important word. Lemon Guy didn’t seem keen on going (or staying around at all, really), but Pump really wanted to make up for the lack of a singing competition and so ended up leading his friend by the hand the whole way. Once they were seated Pump swung a few times, but Lemon Guy was just sitting on his swing and watching. 

Hm. Did he not like swings, or was he not sure how to use them? Pump thought about it for a second. “To swing forward, you kick your legs out like this and lean back, then you lean forward on the way back.”

Lemon Guy watched, but made no real effort to follow his movements. Come to think of it, his legs were so long they’d scrape the ground, so maybe he couldn’t get any speed going. Hopping off his swing, Pump zoomed in behind Lemon Guy and began to push at his swing. “Pull your legs up!”

The swing didn’t move much at all, but Pump shoved at it again and again until it had worked up a decent swing. There! Now Lemon Guy would definitely be able to swing on his own! Pump stood and proudly admired his handiwork as Lemon Guy swung back and forth, picking up speed. It was only a few seconds later he realized that if Lemon Guy didn’t know how to  _ start  _ swinging, chances were he also didn’t know how to  _ stop _ .

… Um. That was a problem. Pump and Skid usually just swung until they flew off, so he wasn’t sure how to stop a swing either. He pointed at the sandbox that stood in front of the swings. “Try jumping!”

Lemon Guy tried jumping. The keyword was ‘tried’, as his squishy body got snagged on something in the process and he unceremoniously tumbled off the swing at an arc, landing in a crumpled heap in the sand.

“You’ll get it next time,” Pump comforted as he went over to his friend, who was currently untangling his limbs to sit up. “What do you wanna do now?”

Lemon Guy stared at him, contemplating either a fun event or a way to leave. Pump waited with an expectant smile.

“I would like some meat,” the lemon-man finally answered as he stood up. Pump knew at once where to go, nodding brightly and darting off with Lemon Guy in tow until they reached their new destination:

A hotdog stand.

It was the kind of greasy, stained hotdog stand that most people would consider shady and unsanitary, questioning what kind of meat its hotdogs contained (if that even  _ was _ meat), but Pump didn’t see the problem. It was a hotdog stand, and it sold hotdogs, which filled all his requirements.

“Two hotdogs please!” he called up to the hotdog seller. The seller scoffed, opening his mouth to reply, only to stop and stare as Lemon Guy leaned down and just gazed into his face, drool running down his chin.

In record time the two had received their hotdogs (more hotdogs than Pump had asked for, in fact) and were eating them on the curb. Lemon Guy seemed to like them, which was lucky! Pump was already mulling over what they could do next - the lemon-man’s likes were kinda hard to pin down, aside from the obvious ones of singing and cooking.

Hanging out with non-best friends sure entailed a lot of thinking.

“Hey-” he started, deciding to just ask what Lemon Guy liked, but when he looked over his friend was staring at something beside them. Pump leaned around him to see what he was looking at, noticing three familiar bullies. Roy and his friends were walking toward them, chatting with each other, but had yet to notice Pump nor Lemon Guy. Which was why Pump waved at them to get their attention. “Hello!”

“What-” Roy began, then flinched as he saw who Pump was with. He took a step back, pointing a shaking, accusatory finger at Lemon Guy. “What is that!?”

“This is Lemon Guy!” Pump introduced his friend cheerfully. Lemon Guy gave him the look of someone who had been unaware of their nickname until that very moment. Pump took no notice, pointing out each bully. “This is Roy, and that’s Ross and Robert.”

“Hmm… Oh, how you’re shivering~” Lemon Guy hummed melodiously, surveying the trio. “I can hear your heart pound...”

Roy backed up a step. The other bullies backed up two.

“Hey, dude, maybe we should leave…” murmured Ross. Roy responded by visibly steeling himself, glaring up at Lemon Guy.

“No way! I’m not scared of this freak!” he yelled. “He’s just some creepy adult in a cheap costume!”

“So overflowing with organs,” sang Lemon Guy, reaching for Roy as he stepped toward the teen. Roy backed up further, his bravado faltering. “How I’d like to take them out…~”

“That… that’s really fricked up, what…” he started to protest. Lemon Guy’s smile widened.

“And then make soup out of your bones~”

Roy ran. Ross and Robert, eternally grateful to their leader for seeing reason, followed.

“I don’t think they like song battles,” Pump said thoughtfully. Roy and friends did know it was just a song, right? It wasn’t like Lemon Guy would  _ actually _ make soup out of anyone. “What should we do now?”

“Oh, I should be going,” Lemon Guy answered smoothly. “I have some matters to attend to.”

“Oh, okay. See you!” As his friend walked into the shadows Pump waved, and then the lemon-man was gone. Pump didn’t mind though, he’d had a lot of fun!

… … But now he was alone again, and he still needed something to do.

* * *

In the end, Pump couldn’t think of a single thing to do, so he walked back to Skid’s house and plopped down onto the front steps to wait for his best friend’s return.

As he waited, Pump watched the stars. The sky was clear and the stars bright, so they were easy to see. A few blinked at him. He wondered if that meant The Eyes was watching over him.

It was easy for Pump to get lost in the stars, so he wasn’t sure how long he had waited when the screeching and beeping of a stopping car caught his attention. He barely had time to look down from the sky before the door slammed open and Skid hopped out with a delighted cry. “Eyy!”

“Eyy!” Pump called back, hopping to his feet and meeting Skid half-way as the two dashed into a hug. Finally!

“I got ice cream!” Skid declared cheerfully, pulling two perfectly un-melted ice cream sticks in spooky shapes out of his pocket.

“Let’s go tell stories,” Pump suggested as he accepted one of the ice cream sticks, curious as to how it’d taste. It wasn’t a brand he was familiar with, so he couldn’t wait to try it!

The two children went into Skid’s house and sat on the sofa together, eating their ice creams as Skid delivered the promised Spooky Recap. Pump followed suit, telling Skid all about his day and how he’d played with Lemon Guy. It had been a long day for both children, though, and by the time they were done talking about their experiences they had trouble keeping their eyes open. Soon enough they were sleeping leaned on each other, Skid’s mom gently draping a blanket over them so as not to wake the two.

Tomorrow was part of Spooky Month, too.

And tomorrow, Pump would be sure to celebrate it with his best friend.


End file.
